Pool contractor review (Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Venice: sale, how much, new home) - Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice area - Florida (FL) -Manatee and Sarasota Counties - City-Data Forum

wille · 05-08-2010, 12:10 PM

We live in Sarasota and are looking to have a new pool built. I don't seem to see any reviews in Yahoo, here, or other sites. Please write to let us know if you have recommendations or companies to stay away from. Let us know how to choose a good pool builder.

kbuild · 05-08-2010, 05:53 PM

I would suggest GulfCoast Pools on Cattleman, the reason I say this is because I built Phil's pool cages for years. The Customer complaints were to a minimum.

Janet2007 · 05-09-2010, 02:42 AM

We bought new home in Nov 2008 and wanted a pool and cage building. We checked out various companies for quality and pricing. We went with Aquatech in Venice. They gave us a much better price than other companies and designed the pool and very large cage - to our required spec. They also do our weekly pool maintenance. Let me know if you want their details or any other info.

wille · 05-09-2010, 08:29 AM

Thank you! Can you give me a little more detail, please? How many companies did you consider? Having not done this before, I don't know how far apart each is in pricing and what to expect for a pool price. It seems most people are unhappy with their pool company because of not completing it on time. How much time should I expect from signing the contract to jumping in the pool? ;-) I appreciate you helping us with this.

Janet2007 · 05-10-2010, 04:51 AM

We looked at various companies on the internet. Then compared 3 companies that were constructing pools on our community. This way we could look at the work and talk to the contrators. One we ruled out immediately as the price was far too expensive. The one we contracted with we negotiated hard on the price, size and equipement as they knew they were in competition. I think we paid approx $26k in total for the pool and cage. We considered solar panel pool heater but was advised that water temperature was not always warm enough in winter months, so decided to have electric pool heater, whic we are pleased with. The first company quoted over $40k. Our pool is free form shape 13' wide by 28'. The cage is 'L' shaped due to style of our house and runs almost the length of the rear of house (41' x 33')
Time frame it took a little less than 6 weeks in total, but it included the Easter break.
Hope this helps. You are welcome to view our pool.

I need Florida · 05-10-2010, 08:01 AM

We recently purchased a house in Port Charlotte and are now having a pool installed. I will try to keep you infomed as the process moves along. We looked into four different companies in the Port Charlotte area and went with Grant Pools for a variety of reasons. Price didn't really come into play as all of their quotes were nearly identical.
Currently we are waiting on the permit, hoping to start this week or next. I will begin the updates as the work moves along....

wille · 05-10-2010, 11:25 AM

This was really helpful. Let me think about this and I may come back with a few more questions. For now, this is good.

beachbum wannabe · 05-10-2010, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I need Florida

We recently purchased a house in Port Charlotte and are now having a pool installed. I will try to keep you infomed as the process moves along. We looked into four different companies in the Port Charlotte area and went with Grant Pools for a variety of reasons. Price didn't really come into play as all of their quotes were nearly identical.
Currently we are waiting on the permit, hoping to start this week or next. I will begin the updates as the work moves along....

We are also getting pool estimates and have had companies from the Port Charlotte area come out (Grant Pools included) why did you settle on them,and I'm now also curious about Venice pool builders(Aquatech,etc,) if someone wants to give their input?

I need Florida · 05-11-2010, 07:58 AM

Really it came down to our interaction with them compared with the others. From the first phone call they were very attentive. We began calling contractors right after we closed on the house. Because we live in NY our time was limited there. Grant sent a representative out that day, took the measurements and had the plans drawn up within the week. With the others there was a lot of waiting, even to have our intitial phone call returned.
As I said, the prices were all in the same ballpark, and the plans were similar as well. One company had a slightly different deck design that we liked so I called Grant back and they changed theirs without a problem.
We also like the pebble tec finish which is standard on Grant's pools. They were having a sale until the end of March with an upgrade to the Pebble Sheen at no extra cost. Because of a timing issue with the bank, we didn't sign the contract until well into April. We were still offered the upgrade though we didn't expect it. Obviously by this point we had already decided on Grant but it was still greatly appreciated and seems to back up what we had felt from the beginning.
Another aspect we liked was on the pool care side of the business. I can't speak for other companies because I didn't ask, but Grant will provide monthly service with no contract. They will come or not come depending on our needs. Because I have relatives in the area for the winters, I won't need care all of the time. We have the ability to use them when we need them but not have to worry about paying them regardless.

ospreyboaterguy · 05-11-2010, 01:31 PM

I would stay away from aquatech if its still owned by a guy named Charley. He was as rude as they come when he built our pool, he was the sub for our builder. I would ask for references......